Jonathan Quilter | Dispatch

Ohio Supreme Court Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton announced her retirement from the court during a press conference at The Thomas J. Moyer Ohio Judicial Center this afternoon.

Ohio Supreme Court Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton’s 16-year tenure on the high court is over at the end of the year. Stratton, 59, announced her retirement from the bench in a resignation letter and subsequent news conference today. She said she originally planned to announce her plan over the next “couple of weeks,” but hastily released her letter and spoke to the media following a story on The Dispatch’s web-site of her intentions to resign effective at the end of 2012.

A new government study says that allowing Bush-era tax cuts to expire and a scheduled round of automatic spending cuts to take effect would probably throw the economy into a recession.

A law regulating ownership and sale of exotic animals in Ohio is on its way to Gov. John Kasich for his signature. The Ohio Senate this afternoon voted 31-0 to agree with changes made by the Ohio House, which a few hours earlier approved Senate Bill 310 by an 89-7 vote.

The Ohio Republican Party’s new executive director will soon remove his “snout” from “the trough.”

A conservative-leaning independent group is launching a $10 million television ad campaign saying President Barack Obama has not lived up to the expectations voters had for him. Crossroads GPS is running 30- and 60-second versions of the ad, titled "Basketball," in 10 swing states.

Pit bulls will no longer be labeled as "vicious" dogs under a new Ohio law. The measure that took effect today changes current law that defines a vicious dog as one that has seriously hurt or killed a person, killed another dog or is among those commonly known as pit bulls

Columbus City Council President Andrew Ginther has promoted his longtime political friend and legislative aide to the re-created position of chief of staff to the council president. Ken Paul, 36, has assumed the title of Ginther’s chief of staff, receiving a significant increase in pay to $95,000 a year. Paul was hired five years ago as Ginther’s aide, at an annual salary of about $47,000.

Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien said his office is reviewing the purchase contract of Nationwide Arena and will push for necessary changes to ensure the taxpayer-owned facility is operated in public view. O’Brien was responding to a story in Sunday’s Dispatch that detailed plans to transfer control of the arena to a private, nonprofit group that would meet behind closed doors and shield documents from public disclosure.

CHICAGO — President Barack Obama and leaders of the United States’ NATO allies formally agreed yesterday to hand over the primary role in providing security in Afghanistan to the Afghans next summer, beginning the end of U.S. involvement in a decade-long war.

It began as a revenue-neutral plan to close bank-tax loopholes and help many of the state’s community banks, but some say it now is a multimillion-dollar tax cut for the financial-services industry. Gov. John Kasich rolled out his banking tax reforms in March in a plan designed to raise $225 million a year through a new financial-institutions tax to make up for other bank taxes that were being eliminated.

A plan to turn over a state wildlife area in the Sawmill Road area to a developer has one EPA official crying foul. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources wants to give the 17.85-acre Sawmill State Wildlife Education Center, located near Sawmill and Dublin-Granville roads, to Worthington-based Klingbeil Medical Partners.

In an effort to show a unified front in their campaign against a birth-control mandate, 43 Roman Catholic dioceses, schools, social-service agencies and other institutions filed lawsuits in

JOPLIN, MO. -- President Barack Obama, addressing the Joplin High School Class of 2012 commencement yesterday, applauded the community’s spirit that helped it overcome the deadliest tornados in six decades.

A court-ordered mediation process has resolved two lawsuits involving Franklin County Environmental Judge Harland H. Hale.

WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors are examining nearly $200,000 in questionable contributions that employees of a single company made to the Republican Senate campaign of Josh Mandel and the re-election campaign of Republican Congressman Jim Renacci of Wadsworth.

We Are Ohio, the coalition of Democrats and union supporters that successfully beat back Senate Bill 5 last year, has teamed with a coalition pushing to get redistricting reform on the November ballot.

Ohio’s interstate rest areas soon might come with a sales pitch.

Auditor Dave Yost said yesterday that he wants the state vehicle fleet to cut back pumping more-expensive biodiesel fuel, saving taxpayers an estimated $800,000 annually.

Former Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann lost an appeal that he broke the law by using approximately $40,000 in campaign funds to pay for a closed-circuit video monitored security system, new windows and other improvements to his personal residence near Warren.

A former Ashley village clerk who admitted stealing public funds was sentenced yesterday in Delaware County to 30 days in jail and three years of probation.

In an odd but satisfying twist, Columbus is tapping construction funds to tear down three major eyesores in the city.

TODD RICHARDS , who was named the Blue Jackets’ new coach last week, will be expected to win right away. That’s a lot of pressure, and it probably isn’t fair, but a team and a town weary from losing will demand it.

What a difference four years make. When Barack Obama was running for president, he managed to distance himself from the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, leaving his church during the campaign and shrugging off suggestions that the preacher’s fiery rhetoric had any effect on him over the 20 years of close friendship.

In the run-up to this weekend’s G-8 summit at Camp David, journalists have compared European “austerity” unfavorably with Barack Obama’s economic policies.